Special Correspondent :
The ruling Awami League (AL), as it appears, is going to sink under its own weight as incidents of internal feuds, reported in the media from across the country almost regularly. The reasons behind such feuds which often turn violent, can be attributed to establishment of supremacy at different levels for extortion of money and grabbing of public and private property. Any level of violence is used. Offences like killing and disappearance are reported in the media. To the government, such offences committed by its own men are to be ignored unless these cause collective public and media uproar.
Our police are overworked not only with cases, but with various other things including containing use of formalin in food. Food Ministry has no responsibility to the people about safety of food. We have too many Ministries doing too little to give the country a workable government.
The whole nation is stunned over increasing incidents of killings and abductions taking place in the country. New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and European Union (EU) have issued statements expressing concern over incidents of abductions, killings and forced disappearances that are taking place in the country.
When the people are haunted by the memory of dreadful seven murders of Narayanganj, the killing of Fulgazi Upazila Chairman Ekramul Huq came to them as
a great shock. Hardly some weeks have passed since Ekram murder people had to witness the tragic incident of city’s Kalshi Bihari Camp killings at Mirpur on Saturday.
At least 10 members of Bihari community, including seven of a family, were killed and score of others injured in an arson attack following clashes in city’s Kurmitola Relief Camp at Mirpur on Saturday. ‘We are yet to establish who burnt the houses,’ said Imtiaz Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee president, Abdul Jabbar Khan, said ‘the main reason behind the attack is to grab the land.’ He said they had lived on the land on an order of the High Court in their favour.
‘Firecrackers were a lame excuse,’ said Jalaluddin, President of the Kurmitola Relief Camp. Their leaders also blamed Juba League activists, said to be close to the local lawmaker Elias Uddin Mollah.
Elias Mollah, however, denied the allegations. ‘It has been a common trend to point finger at Awami League lawmakers, Juba League, Chhatra League men in any such incident.’
Nazrul Islam, Panel Mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation and also a local ruling party leader was killed with six others by his rivals in the ruling party in April.
Nazrul’s wife Selina Islam filed a case accusing Ward Commissioner Nur Hossain, and Siddhirganj Thana Awami League General Secretary Hazi Yasin, who are aides to AL lawmaker Shamim Osman soon after the abduction of her husband.
“Oh Allah … what Shamim Osman has done…. The day before Nazrul’s abduction, he met Shamim Osman and pleaded to him (Shamim) to protect him saying he would go to the court the next day,” Selina told the media after her husband’s body was recovered from the Sitalakhya. Shamim Osman, however, objected furiously the allegations of his involvement in the incident. Blaming the administration for deterioration of law and order in Narayanganj, City Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy told the media “If it had acted promptly immediately after the abductions, it would have been possible to rescue them alive”. What is important for the general public to know is that the PM has taken the responsibility of protecting Shamim Osman and his family. National Human Rights Commission expressed concern over the recent incidents of abductions and extra-judicial killings. “We have repeatedly asked the government to be very strict in dealing with the issues of abduction, forced disappearance and extra-judicial killing … But such incidents keep recurring and have created a sense of insecurity among people,” Kazi Reazul Hoque, full-time member of the Commission said.
Meanwhile, Awami League lawmaker of Feni-2 constituency Nizam Uddin Hazari has blamed sacked AL leader and former lawmaker Joynal Hazari for his involvement in the killing of Fulgazi Upazila Chairman.
Some of the followers of Ekramul brought out protest procession in the district town demanding Nizam Uddin’s arrest following the murder of Ekram. Joynal Hazari also pointed his finger at Nizam Hazari for Fulgazi Upazila Chairman’s killing.
Factional clashes among the supporters of AL left one killed and 16 others injured in Lalmonirhat and Satkhira districts recently, reports said.
In Kaliganj Upazila of Jhenidah district, infighting between the activists of AL left around a hundred houses vandalized recently. A Jubo League leader was killed and six AL men were critically injured as two groups of the ruling party men locked in a clash over supplying sand to a construction site in Lalmonirhat town.
The government has created too many of Frankensteins for its own good and against safety of the people in general. The government’s own Frankensteins have become a source of terrorism.
